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Klepierre now has until the close of Monday to make a formal bid and go hostile under City rules, or else it must walk away.

Three-way Battle

Summer 2017 Hammerson boss David Atkins and Intu chairman John Strachan discuss deal in London bar

December 6, 2017 Hammerson tables £3.4billion bid for Intu

March 19, 2018 Klepierre makes £4.9billion offer for Hammerson, which its board rejects

April 5, 2018 Hammerson delays the Intu deal until it knows more about Klepierre’s plans

April 9, 2018 Klepierre comes back with revised offer of £5billion at a formal meeting between the two sides’ chairmen

April 11, 2018 Hammerson turns this down too

Shares slipped 0.7 per cent, or 3.6p, to 521.4p after the offer was revealed, suggesting traders expect Klepierre to throw in the towel.

If a hostile bid at an attractive price was seen as likely, the stock would have risen much closer to 635p.

Laith Khalaf, of Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘That big a divergence between the current share price and the offer price tells you there’s a very high degree of scepticism that the deal is going to go through.’ City analysts believe an offer of between 650p and 700p is needed to persuade shareholders to support the takeover.

If they can see off the French, Hammerson bosses can pursue their £3.4billion acquisition of fellow British shopping centre landlord Intu Properties, the owner of sites such as Manchester’s Trafford Centre.

This deal is intended to help Hammerson, whose tenants include middle-class staple John Lewis, bulk up and survive competition with online retailers such as Amazon.

Shares in Intu rose 2.8 per cent, or 5.7p, to 209.9p yesterday, inching it closer to Hammerson’s offer price of 253.9p per share, in a sign that the City now sees the firm’s plans as more likely to happen.